As an American, I've never really understood the concept and purpose of charter airlines. Hope some of you can answer a few questions I've always had.

-Why are there no charter companies in the U.S. when they proliferate in Europe?

-What defines a charter airline? don't they still have regularly scheduled service just like a non-charter carrier? is there some service they offer that non-charters do offer, and vice-versa?

-What market niche do the Euro charters fill, that other Euro mainline and LCCs don't fill? why haven't the mainline legacies and LCCs put the charters out of business? with less-regular service, I'd think charter airlines would be less desirable.

A typical charter airline is one that supplies flights for holiday companies. They operate to typical holiday destinations (Ski flights mainly in the winter and sun flights in the summer).

There are more in Europe because the typical holiday destinations for Americans (Caribbean, Canada, Hawaii) are all served by "schedule" carriers, therefore there is no real need for them. In Europe, you do get schedule flights between the origin and the destination for some places (mainly Spain, Portugal etc), but for the numerous destinations in the Greek Islands for example, the only direct way to get there is by charter airlines, so this is the product they supply. Although now with most charter airlines you can book flight-only, rather than a whole holiday package.

Hello! Basically, what defines a charter airline is that all seats on their aircraft are sold to tour operators. Charter airlines are not allowed to sell their own seats (in the U.K. anyway), all seats are sold through tour operators. Usually this is for 7 or 14 day holidays. You book the holiday including the flights. You can book seat only on these flights, even from the airline's own website, but you are still booking with a tour operator. That's the difference. Yes they operate a regular 'scheduled' service, but its all in who markets the seats.

It all came about in the 60s/70s when such tour operators began providing affordable holidays to the public at large. Scheduled operators were too expensive and often didn't even fly to the required destinations. Therefore the charter airline was born, specifically to take these passengers. This is why we see infrequent schedules, i.e. Uk-Tenerife mainly Tuesdays and Fridays.

In recent years, with the loco boom things have started to change. Tour operators and associated charter airlines have seen their market eaten away at bit by bit. They have adapted in many ways, some have set up their own lo-cost airline, all have started selling flexible seat onlys, and First Choice have even kitted their long haul aircraft to better spec than BA and Virgin!

As to why you don't have so many in the States? Probably because the way you holiday is very different, you don't really need to go abroad, you can get a scheduled flight reasonably competitive to pretty much anywhere, therefore no need for the charter airline.

- There is Charters in the USA isn't there? You have Apple Vacations and USA 3000 of the top of my head? In North America, Canada have Skyservice Airlines as well.

- Charter flights usually come with package holiday deals which include the service of a travel agent, the airline, hotel transfers, resort representative and your hotel and board basis. The service differs from full service airlines as (in one way) most UK charter airlines now charge for meals bar MyTravel Airways and Astraeus. The flying programmes are not as frequented as a scheduled airline and charter flights go to many places that scheduled airlines don't such as Santorini or Kefalonia in Greece, Bodrum in Turkey and Agadir in Morocco as examples. Flights to these destinations are normally once weekly but the more popular resorts such as Tenerife or the Costa Brava have many flights per week per charter airline.

- People enjoy package holidays as it is so much easier for them. After the LCCs arrived a lot of people migrated but are slowly returning to Tour Operators as figures show. Why? I suppose you have the benefits in the UK of ABTA and ATOL if a company goes bust. A prime example was the demise of BHX based LCC Duo Airways as when they went bust, thousands where stranded with no way of getting home, plus it often works out so much cheaper and offers flexibility and peace of mind.

From a charter airline you come to expect no meals for free and no pre booked seats for free, no drinks for free and so on.

Hold on people moan and complain about this... how much did they pay as a flight supplement out of the package holiday brochure.. £10 or something like that.

Basicially its companies running planes to there full capacity, a B757 is charter is 235 seats, and a A330 for example run by many charter operators have 350 + and have 3 - 3 - 3 with 30" seat pitch. (With the exeption of First Choice, well done to them).

Yet when they come back from these trips they complain, leg room was bad, meals were bad, service was bad. They fail to mention they paid £10 in some cases £0 for the flight in the first place. (holiday and so may have price added on but that not the point).

First Choice is the only charter airline now to have a Premium service on some of its shorthaul aircraft namely the A321 (great aircraft it is too). 4 rows of 33" for those who want to pay as little as £19 return.

It really does bug me though when people complain about charter airlines.

Oh and finnally i think they arnt around in the US because they know they cant get away with it. Even Condor (Thomas Cook) in Germany has more leg room than its UK sister.

It is only of late that charter airlines have offered terrible service. In the 80s airlines like Air Europe, Monarch and Air 2000 did much to improve the charter flight; operating modern aircraft, improving meals, which were included in the cost, provided in flight entertainment, boiled sweets on take-off. Lots of little touches.

Its only now that Thomas Cook group and TUI have the market almost sewn up that they can now charge for meals.

Quoting Orion737 (reply 6):Its only now that Thomas Cook group and TUI have the market almost sewn up that they can now charge for meals.

I have to agree that since the demise of the small charter companys e.g Flying Colours and even the Britannia name there has been a decline in quality of service offered.

Luckily some airlines still very much independent compared to Thomas Cook and Tui for example First Choice and Possibly My Travel still offer a very good and cost effective service to this date and hopefully into the future.

The charge for meals is taken off the price as some people don't want meals on some flights (who wants a meal at 1am for example). Therefore if you buy a meal then you pay the fare that it would have been before, if you don't then you get charged less. Its a benefit, not a con.

Quoting A321fly (reply 7):Luckily some airlines still very much independent compared to Thomas Cook and TUI for example First Choice and MyTravel still offer a very good and cost effective service to this date and hopefully into the future.

A321, people have payed a lot more than £10 for their flight, make no mistakes. The price they payed for the holiday includes the flight cost, the supplements are for regional airports or nice flying times (they charge it because they can!). I enjoy flying charter, everyones happy cause they're off on their holidays!

Quoting Jmc757 (reply 11):A321, people have payed a lot more than £10 for their flight, make no mistakes. The price they payed for the holiday includes the flight cost, the supplements are for regional airports or nice flying times (they charge it because they can!). I enjoy flying charter, everyones happy cause they're off on their holidays!

Yes i know i was just using £10 as it was the first thing that popped into my head. Oh yes and thats another thing now the Fuel Levy and Security charges push the prices up.

Here's a follow-up then - since charters serve markets like Tenerife and Santorini nonstop from London, why don't BA, BD or others follow suit? If Delta can serve the Caribbean island of Grenada nonstop from JFK (at least 2 or 3 times per week), why can't BA do the same to Tenerife from LGW? I don't see why the majors haven't started flying to these smaller destinations to put the charters out of business once and for all. Doesn't U2 go to most of these charter destinations too?

Is it because holidaymakers who want to go to Tenerife would rather do MyTravel for the add-on services, than BA (with better service) or U2 and have to plan hotels and other services on their own? How much is an all-inclusive 7-day charter holiday to one of these places?

Places like Santorini are served well by charter airlines and are summer only destinations hence why only charter carriers serve them. Plus islands like Santorini are so small, there isn't a large catchments area to justify scheduled flights.

easyJet only flies to Athens is Greece and mainly only the large tourist destinations in Spain and Portugal. They don't currently serve the Canaries, the only LCC who does is MyTravelLite.

BA and others would be so expensive to these areas that people just wouldn't pay when they can have everything included for half the price plus, not have the hassle of arranging accommodation etc...

A 7 night package in Tenerife's resort of Puerto Santiago with MyTravel's main tour operator - Airtours, would cost about £294 each in the height of Summer flying ex LGW. In-Flight meals are free, there is not fuel supplement with MyTravel but understandably, a fuel charge of £10pp. Also included is the service of the Group, resort transfers, ATOL and ABTA protection and baggage allowance of 25KG per adult.

I really enjoyed flying charters. Orion737 I had totally forgotten anout Inter European until you mentioned it in your post. I flew with them to Corfu. Great service. Added extra's I've had on charters such as Air 2000 include:

Sweets for take off and landing
Warm/wet towel after meal
blankets & pillow
service with a smile.

Non of the above seems to happen now on charters because of the mergers etc...

In a simple nutshell, American companies cater to all (business people and leisure). While in Europe, the majors like AF, BA, LH cater primarily to the business pax leaving the back of the plane for a handful for low-paying leisure pax.

Airlines in Asia are similar to American carriers as their product is geared for business pax & vacationers. Something that is much easier to accomplish in a A330, 777 or 744. Pack the low-fare paying pax in the back and pamper the high-paying business pax up front.

Incidentally, Europeans also have much more vacation/holiday time than anywhere else in the world.

Pleasant Hawaiian Holidays has made great use of ATA for its Hawaii and Mexico flights (in fact the L1011's used to have Pleasant Holidays on the fusilage for some flights out of SFO).

I'm trying to search my brain to think of some "whole package" companies in the US, but I'm drawing a blank. In the Bay Area, there are ads every week for Pleasant Holidays, but it seems many of the flights are using scheduled carriers such as United nowadays.

UPS was running some charter flights to Aruba/Cancun out of SDF (and other cities), but have since stopped that "experiment."

Cancun especially, and the Dominican Republic seem to have more of the type of charter flights/vacation packages that seem more common in Europe.

Well the charter airline i work for do not charge for meals,and we offer hot towels after the meal service,yes even sweets b4 take off/landing. Yes we charge for drinks like all other charter companies on a holiday flight,but our flights to india and ghana the drinks and IFE is free,and also on the holiday flights if you headphones are compatible with our system then you can view for free.
Not all charter airlines in the UK are the same some are better than others.

Quoting A321fly (reply 5):First Choice is the only charter airline now to have a Premium service on some of its shorthaul aircraft namely the A321 (great aircraft it is too). 4 rows of 33" for those who want to pay as little as £19 return.

Quoting ThomasCook (reply 15):They don't currently serve the Canaries, the only LCC who does is MyTravelLite

It is becoming difficult to identify when My Travel is offering services as a charter company and as a LCC. Most MyTravelLite flights to the Canaries are on ordinary MyTravel planes with MyTravel flight numbers. However Monarch offers scheduled flights from Manchester and Luton to TFS and these are dedicated LCC scheduled flights that bear the flight numbers beginning with ZB as opposed to the charter flight codes beginning with MON.

GB Airways flies to all the major Canary airports including both Tenerife North and Tenerife South, currently from LGW but soon also from MAN. Their flights are operated as BA franchise flights and the fares on offer are often less than many charter airlines.

MOL on SRB's latest attack at BA: "It's like a little Chihuahua barking at a dying Labrador. Nobody cares."

Many European charter airlines were established because of the boom in inclusive tours. As far as the British are concerned, pre-1960s only the wealthy or the adventurous travelled abroad. The average Brit could not deal with foreign languages, foreign customs and foreign food, so booking a flight to (say) Greece, then booking the hotel without speaking the native language, and finding their way about when they arrived, probably seemed as risky for them as an attempt to climb Mount Everest.

The inclusive tour was developed whereby not only was the flight and hotel booked, but all other arrangements were handled by the tour operator for their customers. I seem to recall that the first inclusive tour for British was organised by a Russian businessman and the destination was Corsica.

There were problems in arranging the flights for inclusive tours. The scheduled carriers were not interested (perhaps they saw their business was under threat) and the amount offered by the tour operators was insignificant. Furthermore, they did not serve many of the tourist hotspots that started to develop. To get round the problem of transporting their passengers, the tour operators turned to smaller airlines and chartered whole aircraft. The business boomed and other smaller airlines jumped on the bandwagon. Soon the tour operators found benefits in running their own airlines. With more people wanting to travel, standards of living increasing and more leisure time, many charter airlines were established

Why is this any different from the USA? I think it is probably because of geographical boundaries - people living in New York or Chicago could travel to Florida for sun, sea and sex. If flying, there would be an US airline operating between home and their holiday destination. People living in England, Germany or Norway would be forced to venture outside their country for hot and sunny places, and this is why an inclusive tour becomes necessary.

In recent years, particularly with the boom in LCC who now serve the tourist hot spots, tourists are more willing to make their own travel and accommodation arrangements. This has had an effect on the tour operators and charter airlines, many of who are now either becoming a LCC scheduled carrier or perhaps establishing a subsidiary LCC.

MOL on SRB's latest attack at BA: "It's like a little Chihuahua barking at a dying Labrador. Nobody cares."

Also bear in mind, particularly out of the UK, there are a number of the traditional Med, Southern Europe holiday resorts which are too far away to make operations by low cost carriers profitable, where they look for short sectors of around 2 - 2.5 hrs max to enable the most aircraft rotations per day. The likes of the Canary Islands, Greece, Cyprus and Turkey, major package holiday destinations for Brits, remain charter territory and will for the foreseeable future. It is the likes of the Spanish resorts that are seeing the big increase in low cost carriers attacking traditional charter markets. Additionally, more people are becoming more independent in their holiday booking habits. They will find a hotel and then look for the cheapest flight, rather than necessarily buy one complete package. also more people have property or timeshares in the Med, making the need ofr a package irrelevent, and the idea of a low cost scheduled flight attractive.

Just when I thought I could see light at the end of the tunnel, it was some B*****d with a torch bringing me more work

Excel offers three class configuration on their 763 flights to the caribbean on behalf of Golden Caribbean. They have Excel ONE, Excel Premium and Economy. THe service is said to be pretty ok, in all three classes. However, Golden Caribbean was recently auditing the operations at Excel, thinking of possibly going back to Monarch to operate the flights. I can't imagine why.

BCAL gave a very good explanation. I'd also like to add onto what others I've said. Europeans have more vacation and venture further away than Americans. Americans tend to maximize their vacation time by taking a few days at a time. This means that you have leisure travellers taking off virtually at every day of the week and year.

Europeans are more selective with their holiday periods, ironically because they have a lot of it. They all go off for 2 weeks in Jan-Feb, and 2 weeks in July The rest of the year they stay home. Major airlines cannot accomodate this kind of inconsistency in travel volume as well as charters can.

Quoting Airbazar (reply 26):Europeans are more selective with their holiday periods, ironically because they have a lot of it. They all go off for 2 weeks in Jan-Feb, and 2 weeks in July

Thanks for the compliment but the above quote is not quite true for Brits. The majority of British have 20-days annual paid leave, excluding bank holidays. Many firms insist that two weeks are taken together, so workers can benefit from a proper rest.

Schools have two weeks holiday at Christmas and Easter and then 6 weeks or more between July and September. Consequently demand for holidays is at a peak in July/August/September (and charter fares and hotel prices go up accordingly).

The Christmas holiday seems to becoming longer in the UK. Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day are all public holidays. Some firms do not think it worthwhile to open between 27-31 December only to close down again on 1 January, particularly if there is an intervening weekend. So they shut down from 24 December until 2 January. However, the extra days off for staff are often taken out of their 20-day annual entitlement. That is why there is a peak demand for travel at Christmas.

MOL on SRB's latest attack at BA: "It's like a little Chihuahua barking at a dying Labrador. Nobody cares."

Also throw into the mix that Americans still tend to take to the road in their own cars on vacation. Whether it be a long weekend trip to the shore, out to the mountains, down to Disney World, etc....

Vacation habits between Americans and Europeans are pretty diffferent, even if you look beyond differences in the amount of paid time off. Besides taking more shorter trips and driving more, I think that Americans in general spend more of their time off at home. Whether it just be relaxing or doing home improvement projects.

Stop drop and roll will not save you in hell. --- seen on a church marque in rural Virginia

One other thing no one has mentioned with regard to charter carriers in the US vs Europe is the major difference in certifications between the two.

In the US, for scheduled Part 121 air carriers operate under different regulations insofar as revenue and $$ than do their charter non-scheduled operations counterparts.

Charter operators in the States have to escrow the revenue at time of sale and it is not realized until the flight/service is rendered. For regular carriers, they cash your check and charge your card when you purchase it, no matter how long it may be until the actual date of your flight.

As a result, the liquidity of charter-only operations in the US is VASTLY different, and it's a substantially more challenging economic environment.

The reasons mentioned above are also valid, but this is another aspect of the difference as to why mor charter-only operators proliferate in Europe.

One other thing no one has mentioned with regard to charter carriers in the US vs Europe is the major difference in certifications between the two.

In the US, for scheduled Part 121 air carriers operate under different regulations insofar as revenue and $$ than do their charter non-scheduled operations counterparts.

Charter operators in the States have to escrow the revenue at time of sale and it is not realized until the flight/service is rendered. For regular carriers, they cash your check and charge your card when you purchase it, no matter how long it may be until the actual date of your flight.

As a result, the liquidity of charter-only operations in the US is VASTLY different, and it's a substantially more challenging economic environment.

The reasons mentioned above are also valid, but this is another aspect of the difference as to why mor charter-only operators proliferate in Europe.